TOKYO, Dec 3, 2012 (AFP) -A Japanese restaurant worker died early Monday in an accident involving a dumb waiter, police said, a month after a hotel cleaner in Tokyo was crushed to death when she stepped into a moving lift.
The circumstances of the 28-year-old woman's death were unclear but she had been placing dishes in the small lift on Sunday evening at a restaurant in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, police said.
"An assistant manager found her stuck in the door after she didn't reply to his call," said a police spokesman in Aichi prefecture.
The injured woman was rushed to hospital but died early Monday morning, according to authorities.
The dumb waiter, reportedly just 70 centimetres (2.3 feet) high by 60 centimetres wide, was designed to carry dishes between floors of the restaurant.
The fatal accident came about a month after a hotel cleaner in Kanazawa was crushed to death in front of her colleague when she stepped into a moving elevator, made by Switzerland-based Schindler.
One of the Swiss firm's lifts was also involved in a fatal incident in 2006 when a 16-year-old schoolboy in Japan was crushed to death.
Broadcaster Nippon Television reported that the machinery involved in Sunday's accident was built by a Japanese manufacturer.